Notes and Treats

When I leave for work I tell the kids “See you tomorrow” I say these words because I don’t make it home from work untill midnight or later. By the time I’m home everyone in the house is sleeping. I might peak in on them before I pass out, but they don’t wake up to notice.

Last year we gave Maddex a notebook and told him if he left me a note in the washroom to find when I got home from work I’d leave him a treat. We figured this would encourage him to work on his writing skills. Maddex fell in love with the ritual and started leaving me notes every work night. Every note he leaves you can see his art and writing skills improving. It’s going to be awesome to look back at these.

One of the earlier notes Maddex left me asking to see Castles

The girls get in on the action

Shortly after Maddex started leaving me notes the other kids wanted in on the treats too and started to leave me notes. Depending on the kids and night of the week sometimes I end up with words, sometimes pictures, maybe drawings, cut and paste art work, who knows what else. Most every night the kids find time to leave me something. To keep on encouraging I went shopping and found them some dentist office style toys, and eggs to put some candy in.

My goody box. Rings, Toys, Eggs, Lego minifigs, planes, and more

Mom gets in the action

We’ve progressed from treats on the notebooks to mini scavenger hunts for their treats every morning. The deal is, if the kids draw an outline of the house on their note I put an X somewhere in the house outline and hide their treat near the X. It’s become a core ritual in the MillFam house – This week mom tossed her art work into the Mix and started to leave notes on the Mirror.

Moms note to me on the bathroom Mirror

That one time I hide pirate treasure

One night I obtained piles of extra motivation and setup a proper scavenger hunt for the kids; complete with treasure map to a chest filled with pirate treasure. I ordered a treasure chest and some treasure from the great amazon.

Once the treasure arrived at home it was on. Next move was creating a treasure map for the kids to follow to the treasure chest. I cut the treasure map up into four pieces and gave each kid part of the map with their normal treats, and kept one for myself . When they found all of the pieces, I woke up and gave them mine, they put them together and followed the map to find the treasure chest.

Pirate booty

More pictures of our notes

Treats on the note books. No scavenger hunt this night

One nights treats before they were hidden around the house

Khaleesi sleeping in her bed with crown covered in books – treat hidden under her bed